Why Englishmen should avoid wearing sandals

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AS WE grew up in suburban Surrey, the sight of an Englishman wearing sandals was always distressing to my brother and me, as incongruous as Dame Margot Fonteyn in Doc Martens. To our young, fashion-conscious minds, such a man was nothing short of a disgrace. He had thrown in the towel, succumbed to middle age.

Sandals were synonymous with expanding waistlines, receding hairlines, halitosis and sensible pension plans. Only stockbrokers and such types wore sandals, always at the weekend. Wearing them in public with socks was an outrage.